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tv   The Kudlow Report  CNBC  February 8, 2013 7:00pm-8:00pm EST

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hedge funds, they think small. they're just triying to get the next quarter to be better. apple has always been a big thinker. why do we presume this money is burning a plan in their pocket? why do we presume they don't have a master plan? i think itv could cost them $100 billion to do it right and they'll do it good evening. i'm larry cud doe. this is "the kudlow report." president obama's poll numbers are way down and lack of jobs is the key reason. the president has no priority growth plan. the s & p 500 stock index did rise for the sixth straight week. but a key question tonight is whether apple will pay a bigger
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dividend with its excess cash. plus is there really a global currency war that could disrupt the entire world financial scene? and then what about benghazi? at a key senate hearing, the secretary of defense revealed after five months that while four americans died tragically, president obama and hillary clinton were awol and the defense department and the joint chiefs of staff were apparently unable to do anything to save our boys. tough story. we'll talk about it. "the kudlow report" begins right now. first up the big story this evening. the northeast getting pounded with snow. nbc's jay gray is in boston, and that's still expected to be where the worst of it will happen. jay, governor patrick in massachusetts ordered all cars off the road at 4:00 p.m. today. does it look like people are
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following that order? >> reporter: hey there and good evening from boston. yeah, for the most part it looks like people are complying with that order to stay off the roadways. from our vantage point over the last couple of hours all we've seen are plows, sanding trucks and emergency officials out. that's good news. it means people are listening. they're inside their homes and trying to ride this storm out. look, this may be the hardest-hit area in this blizzard. forecasters saying we could see 2 to 3 feet of snow when it's all over. and unfortunately as the wind picks up here we're going to see these conditions last even longer than first expected. the blizzard warning in this area has now been extended through 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. and officials are saying even after the wind dies down, even after the snow stops here, it's going to take some time to get in and dig out. another big concern especially in some of the areas outside of the city is a loss of power. these winds are going to get to hurricane strength in some areas, and that's going to
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threaten the power lines. now, over the last day or day and a half, we've obviously seen a run on all of the hardware and home improvement stores in this area. but also the grocery stores. people getting the food they need to sustain themselves for several days, saying they realize they will probably be in their homes for an extended period of time. that's the very latest here in boston. i'm jay gray, nbc news. now back to you. >> all right. many thanks to jay gray. we appreciate it. now, the president might have some senate democrats on his side as they scramble to find replacement cuts for the march 1st across the board sequester. but according to the latest from ace pollster scott rasmussen, only 36% of likely voters think oklahoma should find a way to stop the automatic cuts from going into effect. scott rasmussen, founder and president of rusmussen report joined me. scott as always welcome back to the program. i mean, it sounds like you've got a strong plurality to go on
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ahead and implement these across the board spending cuts. >> well, i think i would actually say ate little differently. there's no real strength of action to stop them. 36% we just asked straight up say yeah, let them go ahead. we then said well the president this you should replace these with more targeted cuts and tax hikes support goes up only 3 points. opposition goes up 12 points. larry, i think what's happening here is most americans realize that this is not the huge issue that some in washington are making it out to be. 58% know no spending cuts just really a reduction in growth. >> well, i think that's right, actually. they're pretty smart. scott, i know you polled on the size of government and spending for a long time. but just going through your web site today, 68%, 68% believe cutting spending is the best way to help the economy. now, that runs so counter to what both democrats and republicans in washington say. i'm the only guy that argues
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that. i learned it from milton freedman. lower spending, limit government, you'll help the economy. you're saying two-thirds of the public understands that. >> that's right. and this is something that whether it was in the clinton years or bush years or now the obama years, our polling consistently find people think if you cut government spending it's good for the economy. they haven't had anybody in washington articulating that view for a long time. but that is the public perception. it's not that these cuts are going to be a problem. they are a blessing. >> how is it that the public can be so much smarter on this question than the politicians, and you know who's, scott, the economists. economists say $85 billion spending cut will kill the economy. the white house is out today with one of these dire predictions. the old washington monument's going to fall. the whole country's going to go to hell. we're only going to increase spending by 5% instead of 30%. the public knows better. >> larry, that's the founding principle of our nation. that's why we're supposed to
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have consent of the governed. you're supposed to trust the common sense wisdom of the public. if we did we'd be a lot better off. >> now, the other thing that really interested me is that from your work, people basically understand they're not real spending cuts. they're just slow down in the growth of spending. that is so fascinating. it's an analytical position. how did you come by that? >> you know, we started asking about different things that people, what politicians mean and what people are hearing. and over the last couple of years we've sensed that people are getting a lot more aware of the games that are being played. the last time government spending went down in america was two years before i was born. not many people know that fact. but they do know that it's been going up consistently for a long time. and so we started asking a lot of questions. are they going to cut spending and reduce the growth? and consistently about 6 out of 10 americans get the right answer. right now only 17%, one out of six americans, think that these sequesters will actually lead to spending cuts. >> wow.
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incredible. scott rusmussen, thank you ever so much for the update. fascinating data. let's go straight to our kudlow report free marketeers tonight. we have democratic strategist. journalist and talk show host larry elder author of "dear father, dear son." before i get into it, there's another poll out today, the quinnipiac poll. basically obama's approval rating is in a slump. it's gone from 53% down to 46%. and other work our friend byron york a great reporter looking at a rutgers university study, people are furious, larry elder. they are furious at the absence of jobs and basically a third of the housed holds in this country, about a third, think that either a family member, a relative like a cousin, friends,
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a third, i believe it's actually 38%, know somebody that's unemployed. that is incredible, larry. no larry elder. all right. he may not be plugged in i'll ask the same question of kevin williamson sitting right next to me. a third. actually i believe the number is 38% know somebody either in the direct family or like a near cousin that's been out of work. it's incredible. >> i think if you're casting the net that wide for 'cause inches and uncles i'm surprised the number is not more like 80%. there are a lot of people out of work out there. you're seeing obama's poll numbers come down. i think that's because he's a politician who needs a foil. perhaps the country he looked pretty good compared with mitt romney. but the country doesn't look good compared to where the country should be. when he doesn't have someone to run against, when he doesn't have someone to be the villain and he's just getting judged on his actual performance in the job you'll see his numbers come down. he's doing a terrible terrible job and people know that. >> jimmy williams, i understand the ebb and flow of politics on
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issues like gun control and immigration and same-sex marriage and all these things come up. but none of that has a thing to do with economic growth and job creation. and i think that's what that quinn p quinnipiac poll shows. when is your man going to come up with a growth plan? >> i would disagree with you, larry, about the immigration part. but i agree with you that gay marriage has absolutely nothing to do with job growth. kevin just mentioned the president needs a foil like mitt romney. he has one. his name is john boehner in the republican congress. by the way a man i like and respect. he's sitting at i think 20%. what's the gop congress sitting at? that same quinnipiac poll 19%. remember harr harry truman runn against the do nothing congress? he can do the same thing. he's re-elected. why does he give a damn at this
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point? he needs a job plan. >> that's the key. let me just read some more from this rutgers poll. i don't want to put too many numbers on but i think it's very interesting, kevin williamson. 79% finger foreign competition. 40% illegal immigrants. these are the people they're blaming for jobs. foreign competition, illegal immigrants. wall street bankers 35% blame. barack obama, 30% blame. george bush now down to 23% blame. so actually what's interesting here is at least one of the things we're talking about, and that's illegal immigration, they don't like it one bit. they blame that. >> no. people don't like it. but this is a good reason why we don't want voters making economic policy that you want to have a republican have some people in between. because foreign competition isn't the reason that we don't have jobs in the country. illegal immigration as much as it's a problem from a law and order and cultural point of view is also not really the reason people are out of work. if only 30 odd percent of the people are blaming the president there's 60 odd percent of the people who need to sit down and
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thip about things for a little bit. the number should be higher than that. all this cheap ridiculous stuff in the campaign from the chinese from romney and obama is embarrassing, nonsensical stuff. our problems aren't the policies from beijing. they're the policies in washington. >> all right. so i think we have lee elder back. i me larry elder back. larry if that is true, there you are. good to see you. we're talking about obama's polls going down. the rasmussen poll says people want the across the board spending cuts sequester. the quinnipiac poll says obama's approval rating has dropped about 7 points. and another study from rutgers university says it's all about the lack of jobs. something like 37, 38% of american households know somebody that lost their job along with them. where's the growth plan, larry? where's the jobs plan? what are we going to hear in the state-of-the-union message on tuesday? >> we're probably going to hear the same thing we heard in the inaugural address. very little about the economy. we heard about global warming, about gender inequality.
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we didn't hear a whole lot about the number one issue on the minds of most voters which is the economy. the fact is timothy geithner as admitted, social security, medicare, medicaid and obama care are on an unsustainable packet. the republicans and democrats have not come together for any kind of meaningful reform following the fiscal cliff. people have a generalized feeling. they get their paychecks, they know the payroll tax holiday is gone. they're looking at this 2% gdp growth. negative gdp growth last quarter. they're not feeling very good. oklahoma's numbers are going down a little bit. >> there's a story out today. white house warning, you're going to love this. white house warning, sequester would disrupt the life of the nation. spending cut sequester would disrupt the life of the nation. but scott, rasmussen polling is telling us 60% of the people want across the board spending
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cuts and believe that lower spending is the key to the economy. we've got ourselves smart voters and a dumb white house? is that possible? >> well, president obama has said we need a balanced approach. the only balance he seems to be interested in is raising revenues. and voters get that. when obama got elected he ran with a campaign plank of turning around the economy with a balanced approach, with meaningful cuts and some sort of at least faint turning around some of these entitlements programs. he's done nothing of the kind and people are seeing it. they're look at this 2% gdp growth as a new normal, larry. >> new normal. not producing enough jobs. hang on. we'll see you later on. the snow could not knock stocks down today or even dent this rally. woe finished higher again. the s & p even touched another 5-year high. but what about apple's cash? and what about the threat of a world currency war? we're going have to talk about that all next up. later in the show, is chuck hagel's nomination going down in flames? it's definitely frozen for now.
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hagel has yet to turn over the information of who his foreign funding sources were after he left the u.s. senate. that could kill him. we'll have the latest. and please don't forget, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. that includes lower spending and limited government. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. ♪ get ready for a lot more of that new-plane smell. we're building the youngest, most modern fleet among the largest us airlines to ensure that you are more comfortable and connected than ever. we are becoming a new american.
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. welcome back. we'll take a quick look at the stock market. we bring in cnbc's courtney reagan to give us a rundown. >> reporter: of course we've got a lot of snow out there. traders did go to work, some of them. at least we had a pretty low volume day, the lowest of the year. but those that were there and the investors were buying in all the major avenues closed higher for the week or for the day i should say. for the week we actually have the s & p and nasdaq closing higher for the sixth straight week. first time in 42 years. pretty unbelievable actually. there is something for bullish investors to go after even though there's no major catalysts in the market. we got that trade deficit number narrowest in three years. >> good numbers from china. >> if we can believe them. i don't know. depends how you feel about the numbers. still the numbers were there.
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that was some after what the market was chewing on today. but a low volume day. >> a lot of talk about apple. we're going go after apple in a second. everyone is talking about apple and its excess cash and what's going to happen and this lawsuit from mine einhorn. >> $137 billion dollar of excess cash. that's a lot of cash. should they be returning it to shareholders? einhorn says give it back to us in the form of preferred shares. he's filed this lawsuit. i think it's interesting really that apple even responded. so often you don't heart company say anything when all of this buzz is going around. i don't know what are going to do. i don't know what the right thing is to do. but i know they should make the shareholders feel like it's worth holding that stock. >> i think there's going to be a lot of movement on that. many thanks to cnbc's courtney reagan who's going to stay with us. we have two savvy investors.
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my friend zach, let me just ask you quickly about this apple story. because as the day wore on, as courtney was reporting, it seemed like apple was moving. it seemed like they were going to put a vote up to the shareholders. the deal here is whether they are going to have a dividend yielding preferred stock. where do you see this apple story going? it's so widely held and traded. >> yeah. i mean, look, i suppose einhorn is entirely correct that company with that level in cash ought to either invest it to keep the business growing or benefit the shareholders. in the greater scheme of things, obviously this particular suit is not intrinsically important to apple or its long-term prospects. it's more that general issue we all have about apple which is incredibly successful company, likely to be so for awhile. i happen to own the stock and i bought it as it fell down in these levels and below. but if they don't come up with a compelling new suite of products, then they really are going to be all about their cash
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and maybe if they have a dividend. >> so this is a little bit reminiscent of microsoft which for many years wouldn't pay a dividend. >> yes. >> then finally really becomes a dividend-paying stock. because the ingenuity and entrepreneurship kind of slows down. >> steve jobs is turning over his glaif you actually put him in the same sentence as microsoft. >> i can't help it. that's what this remind me of. and i think there's some pretty smart people out there talking about this. >> larry, there's another part of the story. the fed is issuing perpetual money. and so i don't think it makes sense for apple to consider jumping into the business of creating new financial products. the fed is driving people into this financial bubble of products. we've got a boom in new york, a boom in washington, d.c. but it's not good for the country to have a company like apple that's supposed to make innovative technology products getting into the financial business. >> david, you've got $137
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billion of cash, for heaven's sake. you got to come up with -- you got more money there, you can innovate, you can entrepreneur, you can have more iphones. you can have more ipads. you can create stuff that even i know how to use. but $137 billion of cash for heaven's sakes. i think mr. david einhorn has the story right. i think they're going to settle it with a dividend-paying preferred share. that's coming. >> i think they'll settle it by buying bam more shares and by issuing a bigger dividend. that would be the right way. and that clears the path for apple competitives to focus on innovating. >> all right. well, i hope they do. let me go back to zach. i want to get into this currencies war business. i don't get this currency war. i happen to think japan did the exact right thing, depreciating the end, probably going from 70, 97 something now, going to 100. it may some people say go to 120. they were suffering from severe deflation. this is the right move. this is not a currency war. this is preserving what could be
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a good economy and helping world growth. what's your quick take on this currency war? >> i think this is more of a media slash davos creation than an actual set of implemented policies. the only thing that's going on is countries are trying to deal with their own challenges in the developed world between the mismatch between their obligations in the form of pensions or government obligations and their growth model, right? we're facing that in the united states, the european union is facing that, the japanese are facing that. and currency is one tool that allows you to ease some of those issues as long as it's globally supportable. that's been a real challenge for the various disconnects within the european union to do that. even dragi talked about that. >> you see this global currency war? >> there is one. the fed has the rates at zero. other central banks are having to respond to try to stay afloat. and so in europe i think what are going do is cut the interest rate. i think that will weaken the
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euro some. so it will add fire to this idea of a currency war. but they have to do that. if the u.s. does the sequester, which i think itl do, that's going to make the u.s. more attractive and make the dollar more attractive. so we'll see the euro weaken some. and that's going to hurt corporate earnings. i think we're just at the beginning of this currency war. as long as the fed has the rate at zero there's pressure everywhere. >> let me just bring in courtney reagan again, dutyfully reporting on this. i just want to make this real simple. in your explorations and reporting, you've got two big things here. the federal reserve is easy money. and profits are rising. now, do you think people are running away from stocks or going into stocks? from your reporting? >> reporter: i still think there's an awful lot of cash on the sidelines that. retail investor is still very cautious. they don't feel as secure as they should or as they did at one point. i think that really does impact the stock market. volumes are still very low, much lower than what we had seen
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pre-crisis. we've had different investment managers coming on and saying we've got a lot of clients still comfortable hoarding that cash. we need them to put the money into the stock market. even though the fed has the rates at zero and it's hard to make money elsewhere. >> fed easy money. i like the profits part even more. i think retail people, retail the individual investor wants the correction. 2, 3% correction. they are going to come back into the market. what i know? it's just my take? thanks to my guests. now back to the growing -- chuck hagel giving the white house some nightmares. the man at the forefront of covering both of those stories is about to join us fill us in.
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up next is chuck hagel toast as nominee for defense secretary? last night we spoke with mir shell floynoy who some people want to be the new defense secretary nominee. take a listen, please. >> we need a military that can project power rapidly, respond to crises, protect americans and our interests around the world. >> an obama office holder who sound pretty darn good to me. let me endorse that. anyway she sounds a lot better than the answers chuck hagel's given during his confirmation hearing. >> we have never ever designated a part of a legitimate government, a state -- and when
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i say legitimate, doesn't mean we agree with iran, but it is a member of the united nations. almost all of of our allies have embassies in iran. so that's why i note an elected legitimate government. whether we agree or not. >> all right. well, unfortunately mr. hagel, neither knows the policy dimensions of his job nor will he give the full financial disclosure that. could do him in. right after a quick break we're going take up the chuck hagel problem. at farmers, we make you smarter about insurance. because what you don't know can hurt you. what if you didn't know that weeping willows have invasive roots? what if you didn't know that a trampoline... could affect your liability? and what if you didn't know that most cars... get broken into when the weather warms up?
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welcome back to "the kudlow report." all right, the nomination of chuck hagel as defense secretary is in a heap of trouble. in fact, his uphill battle is looking so steep it might be better if he just bowed out. now let's welcome back our panel. we welcome to the show joel pollack. he's the editor in chief at -- who's been covering this story in some detail. some senators are holding up the confirmation vote until hagel complies with their request for more financial disclosure
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information. in particular, foreign financial disclosure information. is he going to do it or not? >> i don't think he will. because he has too much at stake in the other institutions he's involved with, particularly the atlantic council. and there are some donors to projects at the atlantic council who have taken some questionable stances. for example, the harari family from lebanon and former prime minister of lebanon has been a public supporter of hamas. so that creates some problems for hagel as well as for the obama administration going forward. >> the clip tons established a standard for full disclosure. it caused them a few headaches when people found out who was contributing to the clinton foundation. once that was done the nomination proceeded. that's the precedent we're dealing with here. >> chuck hagel gave a lot of speeches, joel. he will not disclose the source of that funding. they were overseas -- involved in an investment bank or private equity operation in nebraska, did a lot of foreign funding.
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chuck hagel was engaged in that stuff. he is not going to tell. you remember many years ago after the horrible 9/11, they had a commission. they wanted henry kissinger to run that commission. not even full time. he refused to disclose his foreign funding sources and clients. so i got to believe that hagel won't. >> that's right, of course kissinger got into a lot of trouble there and had to pull out. hare reid said at the time what are they hiding? the kissinger folks and the bush administration. that's the same question that hagel is facing now. i think the real question is the long game. if you've got a defense secretary who comes in with this much controversy and people are not just questioning his donors but his competence after that disastrous hearing, you've got to think about what happen notice future? there are things that come up. things like benghazi, terror attacks. do you want your president to be in a position where people are questioning his judgment because he came in with a defense secretary who came in with so much trouble. that's the main reason with each passing day that hagel's chances
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start to diminish and the obama administration has got to start thinking about alternatives like michelle flornoy. >> she was on this show last evening. she did one heck of a job after her op ed piece. a very very bright woman. probably make a great defense secretary. jimmy williams this, stuff has happened before. remember papa bush had to pull john tower. by the way, dick cheney succeeded made an excellent defense secretary. probably better than tower ever would. bill clinton had to pull bobby inman but they put in william perry who made an even better defense secretary. so is history prologue to the future? >> the senate has only rejected two of its own twice they can find. 1989 john tower, the senator from texas, then a guy before that in 1959. but it's rare the senate does this. i will take some umbrage with what joel just said about hagel being in this much trouble if you will. let's be very clear about the
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tower nomination in 1989. john tower had been investigated by the fbi for six weeks prior to his vote out of committee which was 11-9 unfavorable vote to the senate floor. he went down in flames. he got a vote on the senate floor. he went down on the conservative side because paul wyrich was the one that went before the senate armed services committee and testified against him saying that he was immoral, a drunk, et cetera, et cetera. what's happening, exact same thing happening now. you're seeing people in the far right, you've got 250,000 bucks in ads being spent. >> i don't agree with that. i think that's wrong. >> no, larry. >> i think the democrats have been totally lukewarm on this. let me go to kevin williamson. >> we're also talking about a gross gross double standard here. kissinger who's looking at a part-time job on the 9/11 commission, a guy who had been secretary of state whose mind was well-known. all the stuff you're going to learn about henry kissinger had been known for years and years by that point. that was harry reid specifically
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demanding that. now they're saying this guy wants to be secretary of defense right now. we can't ask him about x, y, z. his business partners or even get the speeches he's given. >> if you can't fill out your financial disclosure forms -- look i've been through this process. you have to. fbi is checking you. you got the fbi rechecking you. you've got secret service people checking you. jimmy williams, i'm sorry. i got to completely disagree. going to give kevin the first shot. i don't think the democrats are so hot on hagel. they don't like him on israel. they don't like him on the social issues. and they sure as heck didn't like his testimony on what he knows and doesn't know about the pentagon because he didn't know much. why are the democrats going to lay down for this? >> if i were the democrats and i'm looking at a republican whose foreign policy views are very popular with the likes of pat buchanan, might have some second thoughts about that. nice a guy as pat is, his foreign policy view ace little bit crazy. chuck hagel obviously holds some
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views, has empathies that are out of the mainstream of the republicans and democrats. we have two parts that agree on a very aggressive interventionist policy. >> besides president obama, i admit the president usually gets his own. i don't see anybody laying down for this guy. and i read today, okay, i read pretty your stuff. i read it from a lot of stuff. he is refusing to disclose his financials. particularly his foreign financials. i don't know how you get through under those circumstances. >> the democrats will support him. the more important issue for them is barack obama. barack obama is still the number one issue in politics today. and democrats need his support to win in 2014. so they're going to stick with whatever obama wants. it really is up to the president to find a way gracefully to bow out of this and seau know i've got a better alternative in michelle flornoy. first female secretary of defense. i have an opportunity to do something positive here with someone who's already served in my administration, whose competence is beyond doubt. it's got to be framed in such a
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way he can pull out and then you'll see democrats back away from hagel and say we had trouble with him all along. >> this woman has a plan. she has a plan for the 10% budget cut. slim down the civilian, take out some of the base that is we don't need. deal with the underfunding of the health care plans. she actually presented a coherent plan that could get bipartisan support. >> what's new is the circumstances we're in. and unlike the late 1980s when we were coming into the late stages of winning the cold war, we're now in a situation where we have new threats but very limited resources. and what we need everybody agrees is somebody who understand how to mansion those resources. this is a job for a policy wonk, for a number cruncher, someone who sits in their office with a computer. chuck hagel is not that guy. >> hang on with me. we got much more to do. four brave americans, here's where we're going. fouf four brave americans killed in benghazi. but incredibly, yesterday's senate intelligence committee hearings revealed for the first
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time that president obama as awol. hillary clinton also awol during that horrible benghazi night. and the secretary of defense, he apparently did nothing. his hands were tied. even the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he apparently did nothing. his hands were tied. i don't know the story. the stuff that leaked out from panetta's testimony yesterday was incredible. we will talk about it after this short break. i'm lorenzo.
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if there's one person who should be present and accounted for during a terror attack it's america's commander in chief. but guess what. new reports now suggest president obama was awol during the crisis in benghazi. let's bring back our panel, jimmy williams, kevin williamson and joel pollack. okay. i just want to say this, joel. you write about this on bright bart.com. i think it's extraordinary. you have senator kelly, senator ted cruz, senator lindsey graham firing tough prosecutor yal questions at leon panetta, the departmenting secreta departing secretary of defense. we learned for the first time i think, we learned that after a routine 5:00 p.m. meeting he had
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no contact with the president for the rest of the night? this is worse than the 3:00 a.m. phone call. we knew americans were being attacked and no contact. i just find this incredible! >> it is incredible, especially because the president led the nation to believe he had been involved the entire time. he said that as soon as he found out what had been going on he issued three directives. we've never seen what those three directives were but he explained them to us. never seen proof of that. the media should really ask what the directives were and where they followed. now we know there was no conversation between the president and secretary of defense. but obama's defense back in october saying that he had issued these three directives was repeated right down the chain. rahm emanuel said the president had given the order, david axelrod said obama was in touch with his cabinet for the rest of the night. that's untrue. and panetta had not been in touch with hillary clinton at the state department. no communication going on between the people who were supposed to be involved here as americans were dying. there were actions that could have been taken as lindsey graham pointed out, they could
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have sent some units, deployed somebody into the area to try to stop the attack as it was ongoing. they didn't know how long the attack was going to last. nothing was done. >> eight hours. eight hours. okay. jimmy williams, you're on. eight hours. these are democrats. you're a dchlt i want to hear your point on this. this thing went on for eight hours. at 5:00 p.m. that afternoon, they learned panetta was in the room, hillary clinton was in the room, president obama was in the room. i believe joint chief of staff benson was in the room. i could be wrong about that. my point is. this there was a whole lot of time after that 5:00 p.m. meeting for action that is could have been taken. and not even a phone call with the defense secretary? that is incredible to me! >> this is clearly a scandal worthy of impeachment which is now being called upon. here's the problem with this idea that there's some massive coverup here. 11 times when george bush 43 was president, 11 times during his
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presidency american embassies overseas were attacked. 46 people died. over 150 were injured. and not a single congressional hearing. not one single democratic senator brought in secretary rice or secretary powell or another single person from the bush administration to say -- >> i'm sorry. i'm happy to give you the date. >> your answer to everything is still oh, my god, george w. bush. this is sad and pathetic. >> i just don't understand why there seems to be a conspiracy here. why is there a conspiracy theory about this? there wasn't a conspiracy theory for the eight years of bush's presidency but there has to be now. >> it's an incompetence theory. >> to say it's incompetent as opposed to i don't know what happened. it's ridiculous, guys. come on. >> look, joel, let me bring this back. how can we not know it didn't happen when they knew it happened? they were meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the white house. now, that had been out there for quite some time. they knew that americans were being attacked at the consulate
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in benghazi. they knew that. this was not something that just happened in the normal course of war in iraq. this was a special isolated incident. and they were awol. i'm not talking about impeachment, joel. i'm just saying as kevin did, there's an ineptness here and there's this gap of i don't know how many hours, five, six, seven hours where the secretary of defense, the secretary of state should have been on the phone with the president. remember this 3:00 a.m. phone call. this is worse. >> well, there are two issues here. one is that they could have potentially saved americans had they acted earlier, had they been involved and engaged. the other is that there are conspiracy theories here because frankly there was a conspiracy. remember the video we were told about that was supposedly the impetus for all this. remember the other stories about how obama stayed up into the night talking to panetta, talking to people about this. we now know those are all untrue. why were we fed that information? why were we told that? that was clearly a conspiracy in the classic sense. they got together and said we've
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got to get our story straight. we have an election in a few weeks. fwooeft to bin. let's hold off until afterwards. now the details are coming out. we now know eye we were lied to. we were lied to because obama did nothing. >> gentlemen, i don't have to say he lied. all right? i don't have to go that far. >> you don't have to. joel just did. >> i'm just asking -- this is me. this is my own personal view. i served in the government. i served in the subcabinet. i know that during crises the top layer cabinet people in the president get together, they're on the phone. hell, the national security council brennan wasn't even involved in. this jimmy, that's the part i don't get. how the president could have walked away. i just don't get it. >> well, you're accusing the president of walking away. i for one i worked in the senate for almost seven years. i would like for the senate to have more hearings. bring every one of these folks in, put them all on a panel. clinton, panetta, dempsey. bring all of them in.
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do it again. >> they brought mrs. clinton in there. you had this hearing yesterday with panetta and dempsey. that's where this information came out. >> i will protect the senate's rights all day long when it comes to any executive branch whether it's obama, clinton, bush or the next person. i'm not -- my desire is not to protect t protect executive branch. i like congressional hearings. i also like nonhypocrisy. joel just called this a scandal, a conspiracy. there is no conspiracy here unless you say it's a conspiracy. if there is have more hearings. bring them all in. >> it's hard to have fruitful hearings with people who won't tell you the truth. >> you're right. we didn't have much of that during the bush hearings. >> we may never know. a lot of holes in this story that came out dramatically yesterday when leon panetta was cross examined. that's the thing. five months later we're still getting new information. gentlemen, thank you. joel pollack, we appreciate it. jimmy williams as always. kevin williamson thank you.
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now we're going to finish off the week with one last look at your money. where do stocks go now after another good week? and one heck of a good rally? coming up right after a short break. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things.
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let's talk more about stocks. we are in a ripping bull market. we even had some new highs today. let's talk to the director at tj ammon institutional securities. >> everybody wants this correction so they can buy into it. rising earnings, easy fed. looks like no new taxes. what's your take on the market? >> well, the market looks pretty good here. the fed has redefined risk. everybody now believes that bonds are riskier than stocks. we're seeing performance chasing. we're seeing underallocated pension funds come into the market. the s & p new highs. the russell new highs. transports new highs. so we may not get a very big correction here, larry. i'm getting more calls by nervous bond buyers than i am nervous stock investors. so i think the market has some tail winds here. but they're ignoring some risk. but in the intermediate term i think the market goes higher, maybe 1580 on the s & p. >> good stuff.
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jimmy. come back to you on that. small caps doing well. big caps doing well. transportation stocks doing well. and maybe bonds are riskier than stocks. what's your take? >> well, like we said earlier in the show it's been six weeks in a row of rallying that. hasn't happened in 42 years. you better believe that makes me nervous. yesterday i thought the correction was afoot turned out to be wrong. i'm about the million th person to say we're due for a correction. i am slightly positive of the market now. the volume is not negative but the correction is more important. this is a story about the currency war you talked about before. and yes, there is a currency war going on. if we can prove by the fact the fed -- price fixes treasury prices and yet still they stabilized over the last few months. that means the other combatants in this war are being way way more aggressive. if you're an investor that's holding the end our stocks looks pretty good. i think it's a different kind of tail wind for stocks now. i do think the longer-term picture looks pretty good.
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>> i don't think -- that currency war creates a buoyant stock market around the world. currency wars give tail winds to stocks. and when you're destroying it's a race to the bottom in the currencies. that makes stocks the fattest cow in the slaughter house. in the long run it may not be the right policy. in the short run it pushes stocks higher. look at the zimbabwe stock market. >> of course it's a right policy. >> larry, you're a strong dollar guy. [ overlapping speakers ] >> hang on. let me finish my point. >> okay. >> japan was going into a deeper and deeper and deeper deflation. not the united states but japan. that is why they had to depreciate the currency. and i think it's going to contribute to world economic growth. regarding the dollar, gentlemen, the reason i don't see a currency war, i don't see the dollar dropping heavily. i don't see the price of gold rising. i don't see any of this currency war stuff.
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i just -- i don't see it now. i think this is a hyped up story by the media and a few trader whose have completely missed the rally. >> i agree with you on two points. one it's a completely hyped up story. that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. we're overdramatizing it probably because it does happen quite often. secondly, yes, japan probably does need to do this to fight off random deflation. however just because it's the policy for them doesn't mean it won't irritate trading partners around the world and cause a currency war. yes, it probably was good for them. now we're talking about australia who's adopting more of a neutral to easy policy than they had. the ecb talk down its currency. like i said before we're talking about us being aggressive and still not necessarily winning depending what your angle is winning or losing. >> not only that, larry, if you destroy your currency too much then capital investment goes away from your country. >> i understand. >> not into your country. that's one of the reasons why you've always been a proponent of a strong dollar >> yes, yes, yes. but what i'm saying is i do not
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see that now. look, the dollar is trading between 1.30 and 1.40 euros. it's been in a range forever. the price of gold is down $350 from its peaks whenever, six or nine months ago. i do not see the kind of monetary chaos that you and some others are describing. i see some sensible moves. >> it hasn't happened yet. >> that's why the stock market is rising. >> i agree. >> you know, between that and the fact that the tax hike which i hated wasn't as bad as people think, and the fact that we're going to get some deficit reduction through spending cuts in the united states, i think are all positive factors. that's what i think. >> i agree. i agree, larry. and i think the stock market goes higher. and some of the pressures have eased off. even the pressures in europe the short term pressures for bond funding have eased off. but that doesn't mean we've implemented any pro growth policies. europe hasn't implemented a pro growth policy. this has all been done with bigger and bigger layers of
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debt. more kaets can get complacent for a long time before figuring out they were wrong. the housing market we were very complacent about that until we suddenly figured out i guess there is a problem here. i'm not saying we have to be worried about the markets right now. i'm bullish. we're in therebying. what i'm saying is, this is not a pro growth policy. [ overlapping speakers ] >> this is not a supply side policy. this is not a supply side moment in history. i totally agree with that. i get that. but i think there are some pluses, particularly corporate profits. the mother's milk of stocks. i got to get out of here. gentlemen, you're great. jim urio and jim la camp. that's it for this evening's show. please be safe during the storms wherever you are. i'm larry kudlow. thanks for watching. ♪
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